SAN ANGELO, Texas - Mason High School graduate Makenzie Mitchell was a champion on the tennis courts and in the classroom, and now it's time to see what she can do in the collegiate ranks.

Mitchell, who graduated at the top of her class this past Friday, is ready to embark on new challenges at Tarleton State University in Stephenville after winning three straight Class 1A state girls singles titles.

Punchers head tennis coach Paul Smith said Mitchell did everything he asked of her over the past four years, serving as the perfect role model and inspiration for her teammates.

"I can't heap enough praises on her, I really can't," Smith said. "I love her to death. She's the kind of daughter everybody would like to have, I guarantee you.

"I've never heard a cuss word out of her, never any animosity or anything else."

Smith is quick to point out that he doesn't deserve much of the credit for Mitchell's development through the years, saying her father Mark Mitchell has been the primary architect of her game.

"He's done 90 percent of the coaching with her," Smith said. "He's worked with her since she was a little girl.

"It's been a neat thing to watch the two of them, the relationship between them and how close they are and how she's worked with it.

"We realized that for her to play college tennis, she was going to have to step up and start learning to come to the net and finishing off points and be a little bit more aggressive and look for the opportunity to attack off of a short ball and set up her points a little bit better."

Mitchell acknowledges what a profound effect on her game her father has made.

"Some days I'll come home and I don't really feel like working out, but he encourages me and gets me out there," she said. "He's kept me going and kept me focused and driven. Both him and my mom love the sport and they love being a part of it. Both of them have really helped me a lot with my tennis game."

Among small schools in the state of Texas, no other team can match Mason's rich history in tennis. The Punchers have won a whopping 75 state championships over the years. The school's been featured in Sports Illustrated magazine.

Mitchell, who said it's been an honor to play for Mason, stamped her name in school history by winning gold medals in singles during her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. And if not for a knee injury during basketball season when she was a freshman, Smith said she'd probably be one of those rare players with four state titles.

"When she went down with her knee (injury), you knew it was a crushing blow to her because that's what she wanted to do so bad was the tennis," Smith said. "And when she went down with it, though, she never made any bones about it. They gave her the opportunity to get back in the weight room and start working out and she was back in there working. She never skipped a beat."

This past season was the first time during her high school career Mitchell didn't juggle tennis and basketball, and the decision to concentrate entirely on her favorite sport has paid huge dividends, Smith said.

The Punchers coach admired Mitchell's tenacity of striving for excellence in basketball and tennis before she felt it was time to hang up her basketball sneakers.

"A lot of kids who knew that tennis was going to be their sport might have pulled out of basketball, but she didn't do it," Smith said. "She stayed in there and it wasn't until she really decided that she was going to play college tennis that she decided she really needed to focus in on it and try to improve that part of her game."

Mitchell didn't want to gamble on suffering another injury in basketball that might jeopardize her future in tennis, so she made the tough choice to drop basketball.

"I had so much more time to devote to tennis practice and not having to go to basketball for so many months," Mitchell said.

The three-time state champion is anxious to see how her skills will translate at the next level at Tarleton, an NCAA Division II university that competes in the Lone Star Conference.

"I'm super excited," she said. "I guess I'm a little nervous, because the competition is going to be greater. But I play (United States Tennis Association tournaments) a lot, so I'll probably be playing a lot of those this summer and I think I'll be ready for when the season starts."

Mitchell has a slender frame, but Smith said she has deceptive strength, which was enhanced through workouts with highly touted University of Texas strength coach Angel Spassov. Spassov also worked with teammate Matt Banner, the Punchers' junior who has won three straight boys singles state titles.

"For tennis, it's more about having long, lean muscles," Mitchell said of the benefits of weight lifting. "You don't want to be all bulky and stuff so that's what the workout that he gave us focused on. I could see so much improvement on my footwork and being able to hit the ball so much harder after I'd worked out for a couple of weeks."

Mitchell, who plans to be a pre-med student at Tarleton, is just as diligent with her dedication in the classroom.

"Academics has always come first for me," she said. "I come home and I do my studies and then I go play tennis.

"I've worked hard at both of them and just tried to do my best at both."

Smith plans to see Mitchell play as much as he can in college and he has high expectations for the impact she's going to make.

"She's fun to watch and I'm looking forward to watch her go out and play with those top players every day and see the strides that she's going to make," her former high school coach said. "She'll be a great asset to Tarleton, there's no doubt about it."